Top Secret / SI –Taking another look
I mentioned the other day that I am scheduled to start gaming, as a player no less!
Chris our prospective GM is an experienced Gamer who has spent time on both sides of the screen. He hasn’t played Top Secret /SI before but in the spirit of trying new things he has agreed to run a Pulp style game using the TS/SI rules set. As I was doing research for several proposed characters I really started to take a close look at the TS/SI rules and a couple of the Sourcebooks that TSR came out with for the game. This may not come as news to you older guys, but man TS/SI is a really sweet system. The character Generation is fast and straight forward (with an optional “point buy” which I’ll be using) the combat is uncomplicated and the rules for Hand to hand combat actually looks fun to try out (since it’s Pulp I’m looking to have My character go “Mano a Mano” as often as I can).
I went online and scored the rest of the TS/SI line that I was missing and found them very affordable on EBay.
Supernatural Chill
Since the writers strike, “She who must be obeyed” and I have been watching a lot of DVD’s. We recently started watching the first season of a TV show called “Supernatural”.
It’s the story of two brothers who come from a family of modern day “Monster Hunters”. Their dad, who was out on a “Hunt”, has gone missing, and now the son’s are following dads trail-trying to locate him and helping folks plagued by supernatural phenomena along the way. Basically they blow into town on dad’s trail and find some weir phenomena of the week (ghosts, demons, monsters, etc.) blow it to hell, and move on to the next town, still looking for dad. It’s a fun show.
Anyway, the gamer in me was already thinking of how to make it into a game, and while almost any set of modern horror rules would work, I personally would like to try this with the Mayfair version of Chill.
We have a secret, loose organization of Monster Hunters, traveling the land like modern-day Paladins, fighting the monster of the week, saving the town, kissing the girl, and then heading off into the sunset. Linear? Yes, but sometimes linear is okay, Especially when you want to just roll some dice and blast the shit out of a monster.
Jack of all Trades (Savage worlds, Unisystem, Bloode Island XPG)How the hell did I miss this show on TV? Probably because it only lasted two seasons, on a network I never watched, and they only showed it at 2:00AM on Sunday night.
The King of Cult Cinema himself- Bruce Campbell stars as a Colonial era American spy working under cover in a fictitious island nation, thwarting the nefarious plans of Emperor Napoleon’s inept lackey’s. Historically it’s flawed as all hell, but from a gamers angle it’s “Manna from Heaven”. Take your favorite rules light system (Hopefully something that has info and rules for the Pirate/ Colonial period) and have at it! And don’t sweat the details too much; it’s Bruce Campbell fer God sakes!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteMaybe "The adventures of brisco county, Jr.", fits into this, but it aparts from pulp to be SteamPulpWeirdWest or so... (check out Savage Worlds "Deadlands" if you are going to that)
About Supernatural, the first time I've seen that I thought as Savage Worlds "Rippers" on a modern setting.
And about Jack of all trades... maybe Pirates of the Spanish Main or 50 Fathoms could fit...
Gosh, Im too Savaged!!
One thing I want to ask you... Have you taken a look to Dream Pod 9's Gear Krieg (2nd Ed.) ? It's WWII Pulp with Mechas!!
I'm looking for people who could tell me about it and it's renowned Adventure Pulp Random Generator.
PS.
In spanish, "Mano a mano" means a kind of collaborative work.
Hand to Hand combat is translated "Cuerpo a cuerpo". Well, not important though.
Margaret Weis (BSG, Serenity) has a licence for an RPG based on Supernatural. I think it's out next year (or due out anyway).
ReplyDeleteJack Of All Trades makes me laugh. It's just Bruce being Bruce :-) I agree with Ir0nw0lf: that's a show that screams SAVAGE WORLDS (particularly Pirates of The Spanish Main).
Yeah, I've always been very fond of the way Top Secret/S.I.'s system works. Up until discovering even quicker and more "to-the-point" games like Savage Worlds, etc. , I always thought I'd use it for any contemporary game I played. It's too bad it died out and that they let the system mechanics fall by the wayside along with it. It's a sound system.
ReplyDeleteI've played both Savage World and Top Secret S.I. and I'd have to say that Top Secret S.I. is even more fast and furious. Fewer dice, adn I love how one roll determines both damage amount and location. Talk about a time saver! To this day our own group employs a similar tactic for our homegrown game system.
ReplyDeleteLove visiting your blog, by the way, although I think this is my first post.
Howard Jones